[meteorite-list] Man searches (the wrong place) for meteorite

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:38:26 -0400
Message-ID: <0eprb3pb5u11vdei40kvjv29rev1tfpend_at_4ax.com>

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0811meteorite0811.html

Man searches for meteorite

Beth Duckett
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 11, 2007 12:00 AM
Stanley Fosha continues to search for what woke him up with a flash of white
light and a thunderous boom early Wednesday morning.

The sky erupted around 2:15 a.m. near his home at 56th Street and Pinnacle Vista
Road in Scottsdale, he said.

"I seriously thought someone was in my backyard taking a picture," Fosha said.
"It sounded like someone taking a sledgehammer and banging a big metal drum."

Worried that he had imagined the flash, Fosha asked his neighbor Tami Biggs
about it that afternoon.

Biggs said she saw it too.

"I was outside saying goodbye to some friends. It was a big, bright light and a
loud bang," said Biggs, who lives two doors away from Fosha. "It certainly
caught our attention."

Whatever it was appeared to fall near Horseshoe Trails Elementary School, south
of Dynamite Road on 56th Street, Fosha said.

The Phoenix and Scottsdale police departments said they received no reports of
the incident.

Fosha searched for remnants Thursday and Friday in the surrounding desert
terrain. It wasn't easy, he said.

"It's kind of like finding a rifle shot in the forest," he said. "(But)
something crashed into the ground up here."

Professor Jeff Hester with the Arizona State University School of Earth and
Space Exploration suggested the object might have been a bolide.

Bolides - large meteoritic fireballs - are known to hit ground on occasion,
Hester said.

In fact, he has seen a few himself.

"They are just spectacular, remarkable things," Hester said. "They can literally
explode."

The incident captured the interest of Arizona meteorite hunter Robert Ward, who
has studied about 240 of the fallen rocks, he said.

Ward, who is holding off a search until he hears more about the incident,
emphasized the importance of "fresh finds."

"Anytime anything comes down afresh, that's the most important part of field
work," said Ward, of Prescott.

He urged Fosha's community to pay extra attention to its surroundings.

"People should just basically look for roof damage, or damage to a vehicle, or
they might find a black stone they haven't seen before," Ward said. "It would be
charcoal-looking black on the outside and gray on the inside."

Meteoritic pieces should be taken "immediately" to a nearby university lab for
analysis, he added.

"It's important to get the piece in while it's still pristine," Ward said.

The unidentified object made its entrance just days before the annual Perseid
shower is expected to peak.

Hester said it is on Sunday this year.

Though likely not as large as Fosha's sighting, the meteors should be quite
plentiful, he said. And with no moon on Sunday, it should also be a clear show.
Received on Sat 11 Aug 2007 12:38:26 PM PDT